“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” — John 17:3

What is an hour? Would you say its sixty minutes? Maybe you’d say 3,600 seconds?

It can be more than that, though. An hour is just enough time to grab lunch with an old friend. An hour is more than enough time to go for a bike ride around the neighbourhood with your family. One hour is the perfect amount of time to call and catch up with someone you love.

When Jesus talks about eternity, he doesn’t speak in terms of time. He describes eternity as a relationship. Eternal life is “knowing the only true God”. In a song called “What Do I Know”, Sarah Groves tells the story of an elderly woman: “She lost her husband after 60 years, and as he slipped away she still had things to say”. To that woman, sixty years was not 525,600 hours; it was how long she had to “know” her husband on earth.

Eternity is not just an infinite number of minutes. It is the time we’ll have to “know” the infinitely loving and wise God that created us. The good news is that we can startknowing him now.

Consider This:

Have you ever thought about time as the measurement for relationships?

Try to imagine that God is so infinitely wise and beautiful and interesting that it will take all of eternity to fully know him. Can you fathom that?

Take Action:

Consider keeping track of how you spend your time over the course of at least one week, and take note of how you budget time for important relationships.